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Evening Dancer
e31d52
>Tie one end of your 50' rope around yourself, form the parchment into a sled, put your 10' pole across the opening, put the rope over your pole, and start down the stairs. The pole will act as a simple pulley to make it easier to move up and down the stairs while also forming a solid anchor. Investigate what the stairs lead to, then come back up.
Zang supplies the materials, including a foldout pole, and I make my way down the oiled stairs... which lead to nothing but a wall of spikes and some dead bodies. With elaborate care, I take the packs from them, and make my way back up. The bodies were mere skeletons, had they been still rotting, I'd have smelled them.
I set the backpacks down on the floor and set out the money and various objects.
First is a hand-held box, which Fred immediatly recognizes.
"That's a Scroll box." he states simply. "See that rune? Simple ward of waterproofing. There's probably a scroll or two inside."
Next is a small dagger. Probably made of Steel, but it's possible it might be made of Pure Steel, which is even better. Magiced in the forge to remove impurities. There's a few runes on the pommel, which Freddy cannot identify.
"Only thing I can tell you is that it's not cursed. If it were, they'd still be holding it."
Next is a wand, which Freddy and Farah inspect together.
"Hm." Farah says. "It's odd. I've not seen runework like this before."
"Yes." Freddy agrees. "It has elements of Projection and Striking, but beyond that..." he shrugs.
A ring with tiny runes.
"How inventive!" Freddy says with a chuckle. "A rune of Storing, a rune of Force, and a rune of Projection. They forgot a limiter and replaced it with an amplifier instead..."
"What's it do?" I ask.
"It's a pretty standard Ring of the Ram, but the expulsion has no upper limit, and it is heavily amplified. Dangerous, but potent. It stores kinetic energy from the movements of your arm and body, then dispels them in one violent blast. Keep in mind it doesn't store the whole movement, or else you wouldn't be able to move, but a tiny fraction thereof."
"Is there a charge now?"
"No."
"Well." says Farah. "We shall dole out the gold between us evenly, but I think Mordecai has been of excellent help, so he can decide to pick one to take for himself. Agreed?"
They nod.
Hm...
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